Reading lessons and poems

Yes, you’d want to avoid nonsense poems, at least in the first 3-4 yrs. of poetry exposure. Mine are older so I let in a little nonsense in there only occasionally.

 Mother Goose is the best place to start, IMO. Ambleside Online has a poetry order according to years and many free online. Most peole I know started with the Robert Louis Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses, especially the one illustrated by Tasha Tudor (the one we have). Christina Rosetti is another good one.

My children have also enjoyed reading aloud themselves from a 3 volume series of poetry books reprinted by Yesterday’s Classics called A Child’s Own Book of Verse. The first volume is targeted to be read to and/or by children as young 5 yrs. old. Highly recommended. As they get older mine have also enjoyed Poems Every Child Should KNow, which is free to listen to at Librivox and you can download it, too. I like the wide exposure as well as targeted study.

Rachel

Nursery Rhymes are wonderful. I know it does seem like nonsense to us as adults, but it’s fun for them and not really nonsense in their minds (think of all the imaginary activities they engage in that we find silly and odd?) and helps them in their speech and literary development. This article explains it well. Both of mine still like to read our worn copy occasionally on their own.

Though I would choose the timeless rhymes, not any newer ones, personally; but I have a tendency to only choose books that were written prior to the 1950’s for quality and content purposes.

HTH, Rachel

I don’t quite understand what do you mean by? What is your concern?

I was just wondering about the words dd would only see in those rhymes, such as dickory, diddle, porgy, that sort of thing.

Hopefully to answer your question better, I went looking throught the SCM site and found this that may help guide you the most:http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/poetry/ and also this:

Read and recite poetry aloud frequently, enjoying the poem together. You can read poems about nature, the seasons, holidays, and life events. Or you can focus on the poems of one poet for a few weeks, reading a biography about that poet sometime during those weeks. Occasionally assign a poem for dictation or recitation.

  I also looked in my book When Children Love to Learn (a CM education book) and although it doesn’t speak specifically to the age you’re speaking of and nursery rhymes she has that CM taught that:

poetic teaching takes place each and every day. This teaching need not encompass whole class periods, but just times of repetition in which memorized poetry is recited, or stanzas read (here a little, there a little), or a formal lesson given using poetry classified as a lyric (I’d place Mother Goose in this category) , epic, or ballad. Also, it reads that CM taught to “read poetry every day”

Further on it reads to:

Store a child’s memory with a good deal of poetry without a good deal of labor. Hearing and reading the poems frequently allow the child to take in the words and meaning naturally without the great effort of memorizing. It is recommended that two poets and their works are introduced to the students each year.

I hope that helps clarify a bit. I assume your child is around 4, 5 or 6 at the oldest? If younger than that, I wouldn’t worry about studying a specific poet yet or the recitation. Just read to her what you choose to daily and when she can to herself out loud (practices read aloud skills and the ‘flow’ of poetry), then move into the other poets. The SCM list of poets is very good. As you can see there are variables between SCM at 1 poet a year in depth (combined w/an Anthology), AO at 3 a year and quoting from the book above, 2 a yr; of course, keep in mind that  these amounts are referring to ages 6 and up, once “formal” schooling begins.

You specifically asked if 20 were too much. I personally don’t think so if you’re just reading for pleasure, but I never required memorizing; we are somewhat informal at this point. Some people, after their children are older, have a poetry box for the same purpose as a Scripture memory box for formal learning. We have always just read different ones and enjoyed them daily. I have found that they remember certain phrases from poetry on their own. They enjoy reading poetry aloud from the Verse books I mentioned above-my son read one on Thanksgiving about Thanksgiving from it this year, of his own choosing. Mine also do poetry as copywork. Again, mine are 9 and 10. This being our fourth year, this is the first time we’re being formal, as I’m reading a bio of a specific poet and we are going through the RLS’s poetry specifically along w/RLS’s bio, then we’ll move on to someone else and go into more depth as each year passes. However, we will continue reading a variety of poetry selections as the SCM link recommends. I only plan the 2-3 poets, other than that, I don’t plan exactly how many we read.

I hope I’ve answered your question…if not, maybe someone else has something better to add. Summing up: informal daily reading before 6/7 and then a combo of informal and formal daily scheduling at 6 or 7 with memorizing and recitation.

Does that help? It’s relatively flexible.

Rachel